


Be Heard

by wordsbykaly



Series: A Bit of Fun [1]
Category: Lemonade Mouth (2011)
Genre: Band, Confession, Crush, F/M, Feelings, Fluff, Friendship, One-Sided Attraction, band mate, friends - Freeform, one-sided mo banjaree/charlie delgado
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-29 16:30:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19404157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordsbykaly/pseuds/wordsbykaly
Summary: I've been re-watching Lemonade Mouth a lot (especially since I've been feeling so stressed lately) AND I got to read the book which was really good tbh. I'll always be more partial to the movie since I've been emotionally attached to it for so long and there was so much about the characters that the movie didn't get to show. Not that the movie was inadequate or anything -- I just felt like there were still stories to be told and things we didn't really get to see. Hence, this series of fanfics that I hope I'll get to keep up.Hope you guys like them!Context: pre-Rising Star, when Determinate was first played on the radio





	Be Heard

**Author's Note:**

> I've been re-watching Lemonade Mouth a lot (especially since I've been feeling so stressed lately) AND I got to read the book which was really good tbh. I'll always be more partial to the movie since I've been emotionally attached to it for so long and there was so much about the characters that the movie didn't get to show. Not that the movie was inadequate or anything -- I just felt like there were still stories to be told and things we didn't really get to see. Hence, this series of fanfics that I hope I'll get to keep up.
> 
> Hope you guys like them!
> 
> Context: pre-Rising Star, when Determinate was first played on the radio

He heard her before he even saw her. But perhaps that's always the case with a force of nature like Stella Yamada: she demanded to be heard.

_She looks a lot like one, too,_ he thought as he looked back at her leaning figure against the door frame. With her short, windblown hair and the wild, sharp look in her eyes, she was the lioness that gave the band it's roar, it's voice. Charlie had never said so, preferring to be in the sidelines when worst came to worst, but he's always admired her fearlessness and confidence. It's cool to have someone like that on your team.

"You gonna let me in, Delgado?" She made a face before ducking under his arm and heading toward the Delgados' living room. Since the band got together (and they realized they lived a few blocks away from each other), Stella's been over a lot. Mostly it's for practice since Charlie had the most non-portable set-up of the five of them. But sometimes Stella would rap on his door, blazing fury in her eyes, and he'd let her take a whack at his drums until she calmed down. She wasn't that good, and every offbeat and awkward crash made him cringe inside, but she hasn't broken anything yet so he thinks its fine. In times like these, Stella didn't like to talk; he heard her best with every angry cymbal crash and terrible _bang!_. 

Today wasn't one of those days, though. She plopped herself on the couch, unaware that one of her hands was twirling one of his drum sticks while the other was playing with her already messy hair. 

Mo was supposed to come over to help him and Stella catch up on the schoolwork they've been having trouble with. Even though she practiced just as much as everyone else did, not to mention her violin lessons and AP classes, Mo was always on top of her work and had taken it upon herself to make sure none of the other members fell behind. She only had classes with Charlie and Stella, though, except for English with Olivia. But the Lemonade Mouth front man didn't really need help in that department, sometimes being even better than Mo was (Mohini would let it slide since it was her best friend). On some days, when Stella would be too busy to be with them (it was always something about her family and you'd know because she _loved_ to complain about it), it was only him and Mo and that was something he _definitely_ didn't complain about. 

Today was strange though. Mo was never late, and even the ever-tardy Stella Yamada beat her here. He sat on the floor beside her, careful to keep out of the way of her makeshift baton. "Where's Mo?" 

"She got held up at their store but she's on her way." She stopped messing around with her hands and gave him a wicked look. "Why? Something up?"

Charlie, ever the suave man, felt the blood rush to his face. "Just thought you'd be coming together, is all." _God_ , what exactly did you do with your _hands_. He wished his fingers would just stop drumming the anxious beat bubbling in his veins but of course Stella noticed.

" _Right_." She got up from her comfortable perch and slid down next to him. " _Charlie_ , this is getting absolutely ridiculous. Why don't you just tell the girl how you _feel_?"

"Yeah, right. Easy for you to say, Miss You-Deserve-to-be-Heard."

"Just hear me out, alright?" She raised her hands as a sign of peace, as if to prove her point. "You've been nuts about her since _forever_ and you definitely can't take your eyes off of her during practice and performances. Besides, you guys just click, you know?" She snapped her fingers, again to prove a point. What was it with her and hand gestures? "Kinda like Olivia and Wen, if you ask me."

"So?"

"All _I'm_ saying is, you should give it a shot. Take her out to Dante's and then confess your undying love for her, or something." He kept shaking his head, but she went on with, "What's stopping you anyway? It's not like she's dating Scott anymore."

He let out a nervous laugh, hoping Mo wouldn't walk in any moment soon. "Look, Stella, I haven't exactly had enough luck with the ladies. That's Tommy's area of expertise." At the doubtful look in her eyes, he said, "Okay, eighth grade formal, I tried asking out that cheerleader, Jules. I had the big heart balloons and the giant sign and everything. But she just laughed at me. Tommy was standing right next to me and she even _flirted_ with him. And there was this time in fifth grade when Sherry Applebom spit in my eye for asking to walk home with her, and then--"

"Okay, I get it, I get it, you weren't that much of a hotshot." 

_Pause._

"But you know what?" And that's when she gave me a look: the same one she sported when we first met at Dante's and she told us she wanted to form a band. The same one she shot at Principal Brennigan when he banned Lemonade Mouth from Mesa High. "They're not Mo."

_They're not Mo._

It's a few minutes later when they heard Mo's gentle _tap-tap-tap_ , and then got the call from Wen. As soon as they turned on the radio, it was chaos. They danced around his living room, rocking out to _their song on the radio_ (beat _that_ Mudslide Crush!), and he couldn't help but look over at Mo. Her eyes were twinkling, her hair was flying in all sorts of directions, and she was laughing and singing so hard he worried she'd strain her voice. And when she looked at him, he saw something that wasn't in Jules' or Sherry's or in any girl's eyes before.

_They're not Mo_.

He had a ton of things he wanted to tell her but never could. Whenever they'd say goodbye after a few hours of talking on their phones, he always wished she would stay a little longer. Whenever they'd go out to study (because God only knows that she's his only chance of getting into an Ivy League school), he hoped she'd talk forever about quantum mechanics, string theory, calculus, the _Iliad_ if it meant he could sit with her and watch her brown eyes catch the sunlight and her dark hair come alight. He relished walking her home since it gave him a few extra minutes at the end of the day to see her smile and to hear her stories, to bump shoulders with her and wave goodbye, knowing he got to do it again the next day.

Charlie wanted to shake himself; he's definitely got it bad and maybe that would scare her off. But when he walked her home and saw her disappear through her front door, he thought that maybe it was time that he said what he wanted to say. _Be heard!_ they'd shout at the top of their lungs. Maybe that wasn't such a bad idea.


End file.
